Conducting Redox Polymer as a Robust Organic Electrode‐Active Material in Acidic Aqueous Electrolyte towards Polymer–Air Secondary Batteries

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Organic materials receive increasing attention as environmentally benign and sustainable electrode-active materials. We present a conducting redox polymer (CRP) based on poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) with naphthoquinone pendant group, which is formed from a stable suspension of a trimeric precursor and an oxoammonium cation as oxidant. This suspension allows us to easily coat the polymer onto a current collector, opening up for roll-to-roll processing or ink-jet printing. The CRP showed a full capacity of 76 mAh/g even at a high C-rate of 100 C in acidic aqueous electrolyte. These properties make the CRP a promising candidate as anode-active material and a polymer-air secondary battery was fabricated with the CRP as anode, a conventional Pt/C catalyst as cathode and sulfuric acid aqueous solution as electrolyte. This battery yielded a discharge voltage of 0.50 V and showed good cycling stability with 97% capacity retention after 100 cycles and high rate capabilities, up to 20 C.